MASH Advisory Team member Rachael Fecyk-Lamb has had some discussions and email correspondence with the Manitoba Homeschooling Office Government Liaisons about the requirements for the Homeschooling Progress Reports which all homeschoolers need to submit by January 31, 2021.
In this Zoom session, Rachael will discuss how to write the reports in a way that the government liaisons will accept.
For homeschoolers who received “Insufficient Homeschooling Program Outline” emails, Rachael will explain how the liaisons would like us to write up our resources in January. Within this discussion, she will also address the format for reporting usage of the Manitoba Curriculum if this is a resource used in your homeschooling.
MASH is hosting a FREE online Zoom event intended to address your questions about writing and submitting your January Homeschooling Progress Reports. There will be a presentation followed by an opportunity to ask questions.
MASH Advisory Team member Rachael Fecyk-Lamb has had some discussions and email correspondence with the Manitoba Homeschooling Office Government Liaisons about the requirements for the Homeschooling Progress Reports which all homeschoolers need to submit by January 31, 2021.
In this Zoom session, Rachael will discuss how to write the reports in a way which the government liaisons will accept. For homeschoolers who received “Insufficient Homeschooling Program Outline” emails this fall, Rachael will explain how the liaisons would like us to write-up our resources in January.
Within this discussion, Rachael will also address the format for reporting usage of the Manitoba Curriculum if this is a resource you’re using in your homeschooling.
Please only sign up if you are sure that you can attend on the evening of December 14th. There is a limited number of spaces available, and we do not want people to miss out on this opportunity if others sign up but do not attend. If you will be sharing the viewing with a partner (ie. using the same screen) you only need to sign up once.
This Zoom session will be recorded and made available later to all homeschoolers through the MASH website.
Veteran homeschoolers share their experiences and insights on homeschooling through the teenage years.
Did you blink your eyes one day only to find yourself homeschooling someone taller than you? Congratulations, you’re now the parent of a teenage homeschooler. The breed is fairly rare and, if given plenty of food and the right blend autonomy and support, can make a wonderful companion! In this session, veteran homeschooling parents share their experiences of homeschooling cool people through adolescence.
Panelists: Roxie Ateah, Marilyn Firth, & Deanna Momtchilov
Roxie Ateah writes: I’m a mixed nations decolonized person, advocate, healer, & educator. I’m a hereditary homeschooler and unschooler. Both my grandmother & mother were homeschooled throughout their lives, and from them, I have always been exposed to & encouraged to access different modalities of learning. I’ve homeschooled our 6 children who are now all adults ages 39-19 years. The eldest 4 experienced public school in alternative education classrooms, but when the public school failed them I homeschooled them. Our youngest 2 have been homeschooled without grade levels from the beginning. We’ve homeschooled both in the inner city & east beaches area. I teach via decolonized & what would be considered alternative child spirit acknowledged learning. Our children have different occupations. Some have attended university & colleges, others have not. I continue to teach my 4 grandchildren in the same way. I decided very early on in the nurturing & education of our children to decolonize.
Deanna Momtchilov is mom to four children, the oldest of whom will graduate this year! She currently navigates homeschooling her younger two in elementary and her older two in high school, while they also pursue their passions in acting and dance.
Marilyn Firth, with her husband Bruce Berry, provided home learning for their three sons for over 20 years, from early childhood through the high school years. While their style was initially quite structured, they soon switched to unschooling as their home learning style, supporting the interests of their sons by providing resources and mentorship. They are opposed to standardized testing and value discussion, debate, and critical thinking over rote learning. Their sons, Noel, Liam, and Graeme are now adults and successfully engaged in career paths in computer game development, music composition and teaching, and electricity, respectively.
Choose between play and learning? No way! Explore the science behind play-based learning.
Many people, including some educators, believe that we need to choose between play opportunities and rigorous academics. Yet the science actually tells us that one is necessary for the other. Play is a primary component of learning. Play fosters healthy brain development and emotional maturation. Play lowers anxiety and frustration and fosters independence. Play is the most important part of childhood. This session will touch on the science behind play-based learning and discuss practical strategies for incorporating play into our homeschools.
Speaker: Jennifer Gehman
Jennifer Gehman (BA, BEd.) is a veteran homeschooling mother of five children – four have graduated from homeschool to university and beyond and her fifteen-year-old is still learning in the living room. She is a co-founder of Wildwood Curriculum, past-president and online liaison at the Manitoba Association for Schooling at Home, and a facilitator at the Neufeld Institute. She is passionate about developmental attachment and play and has created family playgrounds around cosplay, board games, historical reenactment, and children’s theatre.
Helping our Children Get It and Remember It: Brain Compatible Learning
Ideas and inspiration to improve your child’s learning and retention
Since the 1980s, the idea of “brain-compatible learning” and how to use it with school-age children has been explored, but the field of brain research as it relates to teaching and learning has become progressively more popular in the past three decades as the ability to image and track processes in the brain have improved and become more accessible. In this time, education researchers have sought to understand how the results of this research can better inform our teaching practice.
In this session, we will discuss how these ideas can help homeschoolers when we work with our children, including how people can more effectively learn and remember new information as well as understand and retain complex concepts. This session will be full of practical ideas which homeschoolers can start using immediately.
Speaker: Rachael Fecyk-Lamb
Rachael has been homeschooling her ten-year-old son “from the beginning” and also previously homeschooled four nephews. Prior to becoming a parent later in life, she worked as a teacher in Canada, Pakistan, England and Spain, and she currently works as a teacher educator at the University of Manitoba. Rachael volunteers on the MASH Advisory team and as a community soccer director and coach. However, her happiest times are spent with her family playing board games or just talking and being together.
A panel of veteran homeschoolers sharestheir experiences of finding or creating a supportive learning community.
As anyone who has tried it can attest, it takes a village to homeschool a child. In this session, four homeschooling parents share the ups and downs of finding or creating community to support their homeschooling journey.
Panelists: Kristen Robson, Heather Hall, Anna Hunter, & Lisa Wilcox
Anna Hunter is a sheep farmer and entrepreneur living in south-eastern Manitoba with her spouse and two sons aged 8 & 10. Anna is passionate about alternative schooling and started a free school in Halifax in 2003 – 2006. Anna and her family moved here in 2015 from Vancouver and have been unschooling for the last decade. Anna and her boys became fast friends with other families in a loosely organized group called Earth Explorers – a group of homeschooling families in Winnipeg who meet on a regular basis to share their homeschooling and life-learning journeys. In 2017 the group began organizing the Earth Explorers Market – a one-day market for homeschooling youth and entrepreneurs to sell their hand-crafted items and/or services. It has been a great adventure and beautiful example of supporting youth entrepreneurs.
With a background and a degree in design, Lisa Wilcox began the adventure into homeschooling with no “credentials” in 2007 after pulling her daughter out of public school as a result of a challenging year in grade 3. With a daughter who needed full time support and a toddler in tow, she stepped into the unknown alone, feeling overwhelmed and unqualified. Exploring different curriculum and styles of homeschooling took some time to find a groove of what worked for the family…and would change from year to year and season of family life. It didn’t take long to fall in love with why people choose to homeschool despite the challenges (including the extra challenges of having a child with special needs). The home school lifestyle fit well with their out of the box creative family and the attachment parenting style her family had always adopted. Lisa has used a blend of unschooling, formal curriculum, Selfdesign and faith based materials and activities which includes outsourcing teachers where needed. After her daughter re-entered the school system in her teens, Lisa enjoyed the alone time with her son however homeschooling one child has it’s pros and cons. She has not been afraid to pull her daughter out of school temporarily as needed if it was in her daughter’s best interest. Embracing the flexibility of “schooling” anytime and anywhere all year round, sometimes relaxed and other times with gusto, has given a freedom that Lisa feels is a gift and a decision she will never regret.
Heather Hall is a mother of four who homeschooled from 2008 until 2019, while also working as a bookkeeper and consultant. All her children entered the public school system by grades 6 or 7. She was a founding member of the Winnipeg Freeskool group, which grew out of a need for more community, a broader social group and a bigger range of adult knowledge. It led to many formative and lifelong friendships. And the (initially) unintended goal of a childcare network allowing members much more freedom to pursue work and schooling outside of the home. While the group dissolved in the past few years, many relationships from that project among both adults and children continue to thrive.
Kristen Robson is a family therapist living in the West End, Winnipeg with her 2 children, aged 13 and 10. Kristen was one of the founding members of the Family Food Group in 2008, and a participant in the Winnipeg Freeskool in its various iterations from 2012 until its dissolution in 2019, when the majority of its members integrated into the public school system. Kristen’s homeschooling approach was fuelled by an interest in building relationships with homeschooling families and engaging with the wider community. Although her children are no longer homeschooling, the strong ties of connection and spirit of mutual aid are ongoing, and have had a lasting impact on her family.
Help for homeschooling parents with struggling learners
About this Event
Sometimes our children struggle. They struggle to learn, they struggle to engage, they struggle to feel good about their learning. And sometimes we as parents can feel like we are in a maze, trying to figure out how to help. Join veteran homeschooling parents who have experienced this struggle with their own children and see how they navigated the maze.
Panelists: Karen Friesen, Jennifer Gehman and Linda Thorlakson
Karen Cameron Friesen (B.Ed, MA, ARCT) is a passionate educator and fearless advocate for students with learning challenges. She has taught from preschool through undergraduate levels. Parenting five amazing kids, two with significant learning difficulties, Karen has a breadth of experience navigating interventions that best support her learners. Her children have learned in homeschool, public and private school, French immersion, co-operative learning, neuro-educational and cognitive enhancement settings. She is the Executive Director of Ck2 Inc. which provides the Winnipeg South Homeschool Collective and the Arrowsmith Program.
Jennifer Gehman (BA, BEd.) is a veteran homeschooling mother of five children – four have graduated from homeschool to university and beyond and her fifteen-year-old is still learning in the living room. She is a co-founder of Wildwood Curriculum, past-president and online liaison at the Manitoba Association for Schooling at Home, and a facilitator at the Neufeld Institute. She always knew her oldest son processed information differently from her others children. She worked hard to give him the time and space to learn in his way at his own pace. In preparing to graduate and hopefully go to university they finally had formal assessments completed to discover that he had severely profound dysgraphia, excecutive functioning disoder and working memory problems. He is now completing his four year in UW Honours Theatre program as a back stage technician.
Ideas for creating structure in your homeschool days
About this Event
What do homeschoolers do all day? Every family has its own rhythm and flow based on their unique circumstances, needs, and priorities. In this session you’ll get a glimpse into how three different families structure their learning and living together.
Panelists: Tim Engbrecht, Kat Funk, & Jennifer Smith
Tim Engbrecht spent ten years as a high school English, History & Psychology teacher in Louis Riel School Division before re-locating to a rural Manitoba homestead in 2011, where he and his partner enjoy homeschooling their two children. He served as the president of the Manitoba Association of Teachers of English, co-founded T.E.L.A (Teachers of English/Language Arts), and has presented workshops on Engagement & Motivation, Reading & Writing Instruction, and Inquiry Learning. Tim has two decades of combined experience working in school-aged daycares, emergency-receiving homes, and foster care. He is a Permaculture Design Consultant, and founded Parkland Permaculture in 2014. When he is not gardening, he offers enthusiastic workshops, consultations, and speaking engagements on Education, Permaculture & Sustainability.
Kathryn Funk Has been homeschooling her 2 children, ages 10 and 14, since the beginning. She began with a nature/Waldorf rhythm style of homeschooling in the early years. Her oldest quickly “schooled” her in the art of interest-led learning as he was relentlessly focused on his passion for history and weaponry. Since witnessing the incredible way both her children learn when supported to fully dive into their interests, they have been self-directed and unschooling ever since. As a single mom, she runs a small herbal business, learning and crafting alongside her children. She loves being in nature and is dedicated to her own deschooling journey. Her most treasured part of homeschooling is the wonderful relationship that she has with her children.
Jennifer Smith is a heart-led, intuitive homeschooler. She has been homeschooling her 9-year-old son for 2.5 years, and will now be starting a journey of exploring and learning at home with her 15-year-old daughter this fall. Jennifer has a Nature-Inspired approach to home education utilizing a philosophy that covers a whole-child learning experience, which means body, mind, and spirit. She is a firm believer in following your heart and has mentored many new homeschoolers to do the same.
Ideas for creating structure in your homeschool days
About this Event
What do homeschoolers do all day? Every family has its own rhythm and flow based on their unique circumstances, needs, and priorities. In this session you’ll get a glimpse into how three different families structure their learning and living together.
Panelists: Tim Engbrecht, Kat Funk, & Jennifer Smith
Tim Engbrecht spent ten years as a high school English, History & Psychology teacher in Louis Riel School Division before re-locating to a rural Manitoba homestead in 2011, where he and his partner enjoy homeschooling their two children. He served as the president of the Manitoba Association of Teachers of English, co-founded T.E.L.A (Teachers of English/Language Arts), and has presented workshops on Engagement & Motivation, Reading & Writing Instruction, and Inquiry Learning. Tim has two decades of combined experience working in school-aged daycares, emergency-receiving homes, and foster care. He is a Permaculture Design Consultant, and founded Parkland Permaculture in 2014. When he is not gardening, he offers enthusiastic workshops, consultations, and speaking engagements on Education, Permaculture & Sustainability.
Kathryn Funk Has been homeschooling her 2 children, ages 10 and 14, since the beginning. She began with a nature/Waldorf rhythm style of homeschooling in the early years. Her oldest quickly “schooled” her in the art of interest-led learning as he was relentlessly focused on his passion for history and weaponry. Since witnessing the incredible way both her children learn when supported to fully dive into their interests, they have been self-directed and unschooling ever since. As a single mom, she runs a small herbal business, learning and crafting alongside her children. She loves being in nature and is dedicated to her own deschooling journey. Her most treasured part of homeschooling is the wonderful relationship that she has with her children.
Jennifer Smith is a heart-led, intuitive homeschooler. She has been homeschooling her 9-year-old son for 2.5 years, and will now be starting a journey of exploring and learning at home with her 15-year-old daughter this fall. Jennifer has a Nature-Inspired approach to home education utilizing a philosophy that covers a whole-child learning experience, which means body, mind, and spirit. She is a firm believer in following your heart and has mentored many new homeschoolers to do the same.
Planning Without Panic: Seeing with Fresh Eyes by Bonnie Ferguson-Baird
You might be thinking…Ack! What have I decided to do!?
Don’t panic. Homeschooling is the adventure of a lifetime and one that might surprise you. Come and find out how to “find your why” so you can relax and enjoy the gift presented to you during these uncertain times.
Speaker: Bonnie Ferguson-Baird
Bonnie Ferguson-Baird is a wife and mother of three wonderful homeschooled kids – two who have graduated and one who is in high school. Her background in social work has led her through teaching, counseling, intentional parenting, and planning. When not learning with her kids, she works with schools and organizations to clarify vision and map out clear steps to reach goals. She is a contributing author in Catch a Fire: Fuelling Inquiry and Passion through Project-Based Learning.